We need a more intense week to week competition.... Dont think anyone would disagree with that. But how do we achieve it. Reduce league would do it, but damage any of the teams dropping out of SL.

I picked some matches based on 2012 final league positions and then gave the lower team home advantage. lets see how many predictions we could make. I appreciate there will be some harder choices but as we need all of them to be hard to know who is going to win we clearly haven't got that position.

I hate seeing a bookies form saying such a team to win by 30 points. Why would you want to turn up if expectation is your team is going to not be competitive. Yes undying loyalty but surely even that's testing your love of your club.

Widnes v Wigan...away win. (yes i know Wigan lost this fixture but only after resting their back line)
Cas v Wire....away win (Cas moving forward, but Wire should have sufficuient to win on most occasions)
London v Saints.....away win generally
Salford v Catalan....Despite Salford promise, you would Catalan victory
Hull Kr v Leeds...could be a tricky one to predict knowing how rhinos can be inconcsistent in the league
Bradford v Hull...could be different next season with new hope at Bulls, but Ellis inspired Hull probably favs to win
Wakefield v Huddersfield good local derby wWakefield on the up..not sure with giants rebuilding

My point is not to conclusively say who would win but more to point out that we need more games where we go wondering who will win.

Discuss. RL is the greatest game of all, but I want the intensity of the Grand Final weekly.

As Leeds have shown, it doesn't matter how you perform during the season, just how you finish. You can just coast through the season, so long as you turn it on for the last month. If the league was more competitive, you wouldn't be able to just coast through it.

Less teams and less SL games would solve this somewhat, but what of the other clubs? And how do we create more fixtures to make the clubs financially stable? I've got my ideas that I've said in the past many a time, and I stick by them, but they realistically won't happen despite being pretty simple to do.

So Leeds just coasted did they,could it be that other teams have actually improved and made the top half of the table at least,more intense.

Leeds have put in some completely shocking performances this year. We've seen that when Leeds have to perform, 9/10 times they will put it in. During the regular season, there is a complete lack of interest at times. They don't NEED to win every game.St Helens away, Hull away, Wigan home, Warrington away, Wakefield away, Huddersfield away. Seven completely shocking performances from a "Champion" side, as well as many other mediocre performances that resulted in convincing defeats or narrow victories against poor sides.

You only need to win as many as you lose to qualify for the play offs (not even that in Wakefield's case). The good teams don't really need to try most of the time to qualify. Dig deep when it matters at the end. Makes a mockery of the league season. EVERY game should matter, and at the moment I don't think it even nearly does.

Leeds have put in some completely shocking performances this year. We've seen that when Leeds have to perform, 9/10 times they will put it in. During the regular season, there is a complete lack of interest at times. They don't NEED to win every game.St Helens away, Hull away, Wigan home, Warrington away, Wakefield away, Huddersfield away. Seven completely shocking performances from a "Champion" side, as well as many other mediocre performances that resulted in convincing defeats or narrow victories against poor sides.

You only need to win as many as you lose to qualify for the play offs (not even that in Wakefield's case). The good teams don't really need to try most of the time to qualify. Dig deep when it matters at the end. Makes a mockery of the league season. EVERY game should matter, and at the moment I don't think it even nearly does.

Hull have also been guilty of some equally shocking performances,does that mean they were also coasting?Did the other teams raise there games as teams do in sport against champion sides.I know Hull certainly did.The Wigan team had a lot to prove with a pack full of youngsters and played superbly.Warrington were just Warrington and blew every other team away at the HJ just about.Can't comment on the Wakefield game as I was on holiday.The Saints players had been appalling up to that game and had a lot to prove and blew Leeds away,as they would against every other team.Yes Leeds were poor against the Giants, i'm sure all teams have bad games.

It amazes me how many people continually moan and whine about this great sport of ours.

Leeds have put in some completely shocking performances this year. We've seen that when Leeds have to perform, 9/10 times they will put it in. During the regular season, there is a complete lack of interest at times. They don't NEED to win every game.St Helens away, Hull away, Wigan home, Warrington away, Wakefield away, Huddersfield away. Seven completely shocking performances from a "Champion" side, as well as many other mediocre performances that resulted in convincing defeats or narrow victories against poor sides.

You only need to win as many as you lose to qualify for the play offs (not even that in Wakefield's case). The good teams don't really need to try most of the time to qualify. Dig deep when it matters at the end. Makes a mockery of the league season. EVERY game should matter, and at the moment I don't think it even nearly does.

you quote games against other top 8 sides as if leeds should be knocking them over regular but surely if we have an even half decent league then theres no disgrace loseing to any other top 8 team . by the way all the teams you quote have also had bad defeats this season .

now if you want a more even comp then there are 2 things that need to be mandertory

1 every team MUST have at least 7 of there academy produced payers in the 19 each week although i would prefer the number to be higher

2 every team must spend to within 5% of the salary cap max each season no excuses for not doing so

teams unable to meet these standards should be removed from the league as they would have no real chance of completing to the required standard

ah a sunday night in front of the telly watching old rugby league games.
does life get any better .

Hull have also been guilty of some equally shocking performances,does that mean they were also coasting?Did the other teams raise there games as teams do in sport against champion sides.I know Hull certainly did.The Wigan team had a lot to prove with a pack full of youngsters and played superbly.Warrington were just Warrington and blew every other team away at the HJ just about.Can't comment on the Wakefield game as I was on holiday.The Saints players had been appalling up to that game and had a lot to prove and blew Leeds away,as they would against every other team.Yes Leeds were poor against the Giants, i'm sure all teams have bad games.

It amazes me how many people continually moan and whine about this great sport of ours.

It amazes me that people who can moan and groan for Britain about other fans should moan about others moaning.

I agree that we should be less dependent on pensioner overseas players, far more emphasis on academy players. Look at e.g. Rhino success with Zak and Kallum. Exception is if any SL clubs can attract a current Test player from Oz or NZ. Look how great Robbie Paul was for the UK game.

I agree that we should be less dependent on pensioner overseas players, far more emphasis on academy players. Look at e.g. Rhino success with Zak and Kallum. Exception is if any SL clubs can attract a current Test player from Oz or NZ. Look how great Robbie Paul was for the UK game.

did robbie paul play for bradford before his kiwi call up . honest question because im not to sure

ah a sunday night in front of the telly watching old rugby league games.
does life get any better .

Hull have also been guilty of some equally shocking performances,does that mean they were also coasting?

No, Hull just weren't good enough to challenge. I wouldn't call them a "Champion" team or even close to competing at the moment.

Did the other teams raise there games as teams do in sport against champion sides.I know Hull certainly did.The Wigan team had a lot to prove with a pack full of youngsters and played superbly.Warrington were just Warrington and blew every other team away at the HJ just about.Can't comment on the Wakefield game as I was on holiday.The Saints players had been appalling up to that game and had a lot to prove and blew Leeds away,as they would against every other team.Yes Leeds were poor against the Giants, i'm sure all teams have bad games.

They probably did raise their game. But they also probably did in the play offs. So how come Leeds get battered during the season but pull it out in the play offs? How come they don't dig deep in the regular season?

It amazes me how many people continually moan and whine about this great sport of ours.

It's a criticism that many have about the current system, and a just one. It's not a moan. A moan would just be a complaint without reason. It's easy to point the finger and say people are moaning when your team are clearly doing well in the current system.

I agree that we should be less dependent on pensioner overseas players, far more emphasis on academy players. Look at e.g. Rhino success with Zak and Kallum. Exception is if any SL clubs can attract a current Test player from Oz or NZ. Look how great Robbie Paul was for the UK game.

Zak came from Featherstone so wasn't an academy product but I can see your point.perhaps an age limit on overseas players,the one sticking point on overseas players is employment law.